Hollins 2012
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WILDLIFE DIARY AND NEWS FOR DEC 24 - 30 (WEEK 52 OF 2012) BIRDS Divers : Plenty of Red-throated this week with as many as 24 to be seen off Selsey Bill on Dec 28 and around 20 in Christchurch Harbour on Dec 24 with just 1393 seen off The Hague in the Netherlands on Dec 26. The only place to see more than one Black-throated was Anstruther in Scotland with 3 on Dec 27 but singles were seen at Sandy Point (Hayling Island) on Dec 23, Christchurch Harbour on that day and Dec 24, with one in the Stokes Bay are of Gosport on Dec 27 and 28. On Dec 23 Torbay in Devon had 10 Great Northern and on Dec 24 there were 11 at Gerrans Bay (south Cornwall) while on Dec 27 Selsey Bill had 5, Portland Harbour had 4 and there was one in Southampton Water - on Dec 28 one even came into the mouth of Langstone Harbour. Grebes : No mention of the east Solent Great Crested this week but there were 33 in the Torbay area of Devon on Dec 23 and 55 off Folkestone on Dec 27. Single Red-necked were heading west past Selsey Bill on Dec 27, Weymouth Bay in Dorset on Dec 26 and Gerrans Bay in Cornwall on Dec 23. Portland Harbour had the most Slavonian (but only 4 on Dec 27 with Selsey Bill coming second with 3 on Dec 23). Dorset had no counts of Black-necked higher than 31 on Dec 21 when 21 were in Portland Harbour and another 10 in the Studland area, and this was topped by Cornwall where 35 were reported in Carrick Roads (Falmouth) on Dec 23. Devon reported no more than 3 in Torbay on Dec 24 Balearic Shearwater : There were plenty of these in the English Channel in the first half of October but only the occasional single has been seen since Oct 19 until this week when more than 3 were in Carbis Bay (Cornwall) on Dec 28 and one got as far east as Portland on Dec 27 Leach's Storm Petrel : One at Selsey Bill on Dec 27 was rarity of the week there Bittern : Seen this week at Titchfield Haven (two birds), Marazion and Falmouth in Cornwall, Rye Harbour, and the Blashford Lakes near Ringwood (two). Great White Egret : RBA told us on Dec 27 that there were at least 9 in the UK and five of these seem to have been at Dungeness RSPB with another being the regular at Bickerley Common/Blashford Lakes beside the Hampshire Avon Glossy Ibis : The only one reported this week was the regular at Bickerly Common (just south of Ringwood in the Avon Valley) which has been there since Dec 2 (possibly the same bird which flew in over Christchurch Harbour on Oct 25 but headed north to spend some time in Pembrokeshire before returning to the Hampshire Avon - I have no facts to back up this conjecture) Spoonbill : The flock of up to 16 which have been in Poole Harbour since mid- November have not been reported since Dec 17 but the single bird seen in the Scillies since Dec 4 suddenly increased to four on Dec 18 Bewick's Swan : A herd of 10 which appeared in the Adur valley near Henfield on Dec 18 had become 17 birds since Dec 24 though they have not been reported since Dec 28 Red-breasted Goose : The Farlington Marshes bird was still present on Dec 27 as was the Sussex bird in the Adur valley Pintail : The Avon valley flock south of Ringwood had increased from 100 on Dec 21 to 400 on Dec 27 Red Crested Pochard : One made a monthly appearance at the Blashford Lakes near Ringwood on Dec 24 (it had been there on Nov 23) Scaup : A male flying west past Selsey Bill on Dec 28 was an unexpected tick there Eider : A male was off East Head in the mouth of Chichester Harbour on Dec 28 - the first report from inside the harbour since the end of November when two were seen there on a couple of days Smew : A redhead has been reported at the Longham Lakes north of Bournemouth on both Dec 21 and Dec 24 when there were also seven at the RSPB Dungeness reserve Goosander : Up to 45 were at the Blashford Lakes in November but there have been no reports from there in December until Dec 24 when 64 were seen (I suspect these birds disperse during the day and do not re-appear to roost until most visitors have left). Another first report for this winter of a regular roost at Bramshill Plantation on the Hants/Berks border comes from John Clark who saw 17 there on Dec 28 Marsh Harrier : Up to 4 seen at Titchfield Haven this week Hen Harrier : One seen around Arne to the west of Poole Harbour and possibly two in the New Forest with one seen over Yew Tree Heath near Beaulieu Road Station and another over Ocknell Plain nine miles north west as the Harrier flies Kestrel : A good many years ago I was surprised to see a Barn Owl mugged of its vole prey at Amberley Wild Brooks by a Kestrel which flew straight at and crashed into the Owl in it attempt to snatch the vole from the Owl's talons as soon as the Owl become airborne with its meal. I mention this because a similar snatch and grab was seen on Dec 21 this week at the Pevensey Levels near Eastbourne, the only difference was that the Kestrel's victim here was a Short- eared Owl (which learnt its lesson, staying on the ground to eat a second vole and not taking off to expose itself to the Kestrel for a second time). Merlin : As I was going through this weeks reports on the internet it occurred to me that there seemed to be a shortage of Merlin sightings this winter so I attempted to capture all current reports of this species for this week but could only find two from Dorset (Christchurch Harbour and Wool), one from Cornwall (Bodmin Moor), two from Sussex (one at The Burgh where the Arun cuts through the South Downs and one at Rye Harbour). The only Hampshire report was not from the sort of open site such as Farlington Marshes where this species is usually present - though rarely seen - but from a town rooftop in Havant West Street rousing my scepticism (could this have been a Kestrel) as there was no backing info about the bird's plumage or behaviour (other than perching on a roof) to support this unusual claim. Avocet : On Christmas Day a flock of 37 were in Broom Channel of Langstone Harbour (between Farlington Marshes and the Eastern Road into Portsmouth) but there were no reports from Sussex and the nearest were 316 in Poole Harbour at Brownsea Island Purple Sandpiper : The number seen at Southsea Castle this winter reached 10 on Dec 7 but all other counts there have been in single figures until this week when 17 were seen on Dec 23, not quite matching counts at Christchurch Harbour of 18 on Dec 28 and 24 on Dec 19 though we did exceed any recent Sussex counts (12 at Shoreham on Dec 15 and 10 at Newhaven on Nov 13) Ruff : Dec 27 brought 4 to Pagham Harbour North Walls (uncommon there) and 2 to Bisterne in the Hampshire Avon valley Woodcock : Hampshire was the only county to report sightings this week with two flushed deep in the Botley Woods north of Fareham and one at Longwood Warren near Cheeesefoot Head to the east of Winchester Blacktailed Godwit : A couple of probable record counts this week were made on Dec 27 with 1070 at Pagham Harbour North Walls and 4000 in the Hampshire Avon valley at Bisterne (these were balanced by a notable shortage of the birds in Chichester Harbour) Med Gull : Also in short supply in Langstone Harbour at this time of year but at least two were present in the Eastney Lake area - not sure where the birds are currently to be found, the last report which I felt of sufficient interest to note was of 176 at Weymouth (Ferrybridge) on Oct 30. I can only find 21 reports of Hampshire sightings since the end of October and other than four seen at the mouth of the R Itchen in Southampton on Dec 29 and three on the flooded University fields (just south of the Milton reclamation on the south east shore of Porstsea Island), two at Sandy Point, Hayling Island, on Nov 25 and two further up the Itchen in Southampton (Riverside Park) on Nov 30, these were all of single birds. Ring Billed Gull : The Gosport bird was around the Cockle Pond on Dec 25 and 26 Common Gull : A flock of more than 261 were seen around Newlands Farm (between Fareham and Stubbington) on Dec 25 while another bird got into the news this week when it was captured on film at the Arundel Wildfowl Reserve on Dec 22 swallowing a large Eel that looked to big to fit into the bird's crop (see the photos in Brian Fellows diary entry for Dec 22 at http://www.emsworthwildlife.hampshire.org.uk/0-0-0-wildlife-diary.htm or for a short cut to the first of these photos go to http://www.emsworthwildlife.hampshire.org.uk/0-0-0-x904-common-gull-eel-1- RT.jpg ) Sandwich Tern : On Dec 27 5 were seen at the mouth of Chichester Harbour and 1 at Christchurch Harbour but the total still on the French Normandie coast at Ouistreham on that day was still 102 Guillemot : Locally one was seen at Sandy Point on Hayling Island on Dec 23 and three were in Southampton Water (Weston Shore) on Dec 27.